Universal Design
What is Universal Design? If we look at Universal Design from the Education perspective it is learning for all. Shouldn't every child be able to learn and access information? This is not always happening in our classrooms and they is still a lot to learn about Universal Design for learning.
We want to be able to be meeting all the learning styles, not just one.Our education system tends to teach with one learning style. There are Four learning styles, visual, auditory/oral, sequential and Kintestic. So in simple terms, the learning styles can be like this:
-Visual: a visual learner likes to learn through seeing and images. That person learns best with pictures, diagrams, charts, videos, etc.
-Auditory/oral: A person who likes to hear and talk to learn. Audio instruction is very important for this person to understand what they are doing. Also, having group discussions could help them to use their oral skills.
-Sequential: for a sequential learner, they learn in a very structured and logically manner. Having books, and broken down instructions make sense to them. Our school systems tends to teach in a very sequential manner.
-Kintestic: this is hands on learning. You like to “do” or learn with your hands. For example: if this person was in gym class, they would not want to watch the teacher show how to do that slap shot in hockey, they would rather pick up the hockey stick and actually do that shot to learn it.
For more details on the different learning styles, check on the link below:
Multiple instruction is one way to use Universal Design Learning in our classrooms. We could meet these different learning styles by providing Multiple instructions.Here is an example of how multiple instruction would work in the classroom:
Teaching a science lesson on light. To teach this lesson and meet the four learning styles, these aspects could be involved. You would have lots of video and pictures to meet the needs of the visual learner. When you are explaining the aspects or instructions for this lesson on light, make sure they are very clear for your auditory learners. Handouts or resources are very helpful for students to review and look over. Especially with handouts you can meet the needs of a visual learner and also students that struggle with focusing or hearing what your saying.
Pulling from multiple resources and media will help to meet those multiple learning styles also. For example:
• Youtube has videos galore and tons to pull from. Also kids usually love youtube.
• Prezi is an awesome presentation tool. It is like PowerPoint on steroids. I find kids love watching it and creating it themselves.
• Smart Boards are absolutely wonderful. Smart Boards Engage the visual and kinesthetic learner by showing them and letting them play with it with their hands.
Trying to incorporate technology will intrigue and engage the kids. Most of them use technology at home so why can't we use it at school? These are just a few of my favorites. The list goes on and on.Try as much as you can.
All children can learn, most just haven't figured out there learning style. We can do this by making them aware and immersing them in the different learning techniques.
The video below is from the Hamilton Wentworth Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC). They explain Universal design very well.
A how to for using UDL as a teacher:
Making Universal Design easy with the Learnstyle Inventory:
